Standards and their importance for the Organizations The modern and globalized world cannot exist without standards which are sup­porting cooperation, trade, health, safety, and economic growth etc. In fact, standards exist in almost all aspects of modern life. They range from standards in information and communication technology which ensure the interoperability of diverse components to standards for the quality of products or services, and underlie areas ranging from the harmonization of international accounting systems to the governance of the social and environmental performance of the organizations. Stand­ards have a huge influence on everyday life. They play a key role in an environment where an organization is to be at its best for achieving success. They are open access documents with no charge or license fee for their use, apart from the cost of its purchase. The development of standardization as an engineering activity was pioneered by Eli Whitney, who in 1793 invented the cotton gin, a machine for separating cotton fibres from their seeds. Whitney later introduced the production of interchangeable components for the manufacture of guns. Standardization of screw threads by Sir Joseph Whitworth dates back to 1841. Other instances of early standardization can be found in the dawning age of the railway industry, as the establishment of a standard width between the two rails on the railway track, the manufacture of railway couplings, air brakes and the signaling system called for increasing levels of standardized work. But major impetus to the development of standards came around the turn of the 20th century, when a large number of national standardization organizations were founded, including organizations that are nowadays known as the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Their purpose was to create sets of rules for the design...